E98 
15 R9 



' X 5 K 'I 



The Merchandise of the 
American Indian 



AST and varied are the exports of American merchan- 



dise, but the wares of the aboriginal American find no 
place in the expanding foreign trade of the United States. 
In fact, each year there is less and less real American 
Indian handiwork produced and sold, and virtually none 
exported, so the outside world knows little of the interesting 
and beautiful things made by a people whose zenith has 
been passed — a race of primitive, child-like semi-savages 
that is slowly but surely being assimilated in the melting 
pot of the New World. 

The merchandise of the American Indian is peculiar to 
itself, and while much of it is serviceable in one way or 
another, the great bulk of it is used for ornamental pur- 
poses or as mementos of visits to the Far Western States. 
The largest and most appreciative purchasers, however, 
are those who have made a study of this peculiar race of 
people and have formed the hobby of collecting their wares, 
learning the story of each article, and studying the blankets, 
bead work, and pottery from an ethnological viewpoint. 

Classificatiox of Ixdiax Wares 

The wares of the American Indian, viewed historically 
and commercially, may be divided into a number of classes. 
There are the relics and mementos of tribes and peoples 
now extinct, and there is the semi-recent work of the tribes 
that have inhabited the United States during the past hun- 
dred years. Most plentiful of all, however, is the handi- 
work of the Indians of the last few decades, although in 
many respects the most recent work is least sought after, 
because it lacks much of the crudeness and originality of 
the real American Indian, and is tinged too much with 
modern civilization. 

Another division of Indian merchandise may be made 
along the lines of usage. Some of the most valuable pieces 
of Indian work represent efforts on the part of the squaws 
to provide for themselves and their families articles of 




2 THE MERCHANDISE OF 




THE AMERICAN INDIAN 



3 



wearing apparel, but more interesting to the collector of 
Indian relics are the Indian "playthings" which tell the 
story of the mental development of the race. The Indians, 
with minds much like children, express their thoughts and 
portray their environment largely in their games and pas- 
times, and the crude playthings of young and old tell the 
silent story of the race itself. Still another division of 
Indian merchandise may be made, to include the red man 
in art. The Indian himself is the subject, rather than the 
principal, however, of this division, for it has remained 
for those white people interested in the Indians and their 
habits to present the world with photographs and paint- 
ings and books depicting the mode of life, dress, and 
activities of the buck, squaw and papoose. 

Antiquity of Indian Artcrafts 

When Columbus discovered America in 1492, he found 
the lands he visited inhabited by strange savage tribes of 
copper colored people, whom he named Indians, because he 
believed that he had circumnavigated the globe and had 
reached the Indias of the Orient. Later explorers found 
much of the North American continent inhabited by similar 
peoples, and while the delusion of Columbus was dispelled, 
the original name of Indians remained with the races in- 
habiting the Americas. However, as North America be- 
came settled, evidences were discovered of other races, then 
extinct, which had, ages ago, roamed the mountains and 
prairies and plains. In the eastern and central states, 
these people have become known as the Mound Builders, 
because the chief evidence of their existence is found in 
numerous mounds that exist, especially in the Ohio and 
Mississippi river valleys. In the Southwest, they have 
been called Cliff Dwellers, because they built their "palaces" 
or villages in almost inaccessible cliffs. In the mounds and 
the cliff palaces have been found many interesting memen- 
tos of these peoples, such as pottery, stone implements and 
other handiwork, but none of the numerous explorations 
made thus far have revealed whence they came, when they 
lived, where they have gone, or why they disappeared. 
Articles made by them have been greatly sought after by 
collectors of Indian curios. There is every reason to believe 
that the Mound Builders and the Cliff Dwellers were en- 
tirely different peoples, possibly living in different ages, 
and certainly existing under most different environments 
and there is no reason whatever to believe that the Amer- 
ican Indian who has been known to the white men of the 
last four hundred years, is even a remote descendant of 



THE AMERICAN INDIAN 



5 



either race. These people, however, were the first American 
manufacturers, and their wares are eagerly sought by 
anthropologists who hope some day to find the Rosetta 
stone that will unlock the mysteries of the vanished races. 

Columbus was the first importer of American Indian 
merchandise, when he took a few Indians and some of their 
gaudy trinkets back to Queen Isabella; but if history is 
correct, the good queen who had pawned her jewels to help 
the discoverer of the New World was not impressed with 
either the artistic or the enthnological value of the Indians 
or their handiwork. Her hopes were based on the tales of 
Marco Polo, and her dreams were of gold, silver and jewels. 




A Ghimayo Mexican zarape. The squaws of this tribe weave 

more accurately and in designs more perfect than 
their distant neighbors, the Navajo 



In fact, only since the American Indian has been yielding 
rapidly to the encroachment of the white man's civilization, 
has the real value of his handiwork become recognized and 
commercialized as merchandise to be bought and sold. 

Some of the Famous Indian Blankets 

From time immemorial, the North American Indian has 
been a blanket race, consequently among the chief articles 
of Indian merchandise sought by the collector are many 
specimens of blanketry. 

The best known Indian blankets are, without doubt, the 
work of the Navajo tribes of Southwestern United States, 
and in many American homes they are extensively used as 
floor rugs. For decades, perhaps for centuries, these 
Indians have raised sheep on the mesas and in the valleys 
near their villages. The squaws have sheared the sheep, 



THE AMERICAN INDIAN 7 



washed the wool, carded and spun the yarn, and then have 
woven their blankets, all in the most primitive manner. 
Their distaffs are rude wooden affairs, and the Navajo 
loom usually consists of a couple of long poles lashed with 
thongs across a space between two trees. The lower pole 
is weighted down with rocks, to tighten the warp strings 
that are passed over the top pole and around the lower pole, 
and a long blunt "batten stick" is used to hold the warp 
strings apart and to beat down the yarn of the woof into 
its proper place. Slowly and patiently the threads are 
woven in and out, an inch a day being considered good 
speed on a well woven Navajo. The designs are usually 



One of the Navajo blankets in the collection of the author. A proof 
of a genuine Indian blanket or rug is that the 
crude work is irregular 

symbolical, signifying those things most dear to the 
weaver — her church, represented by the cross, rain clouds, 
water courses, pine trees and serpents. Occasionally birds 
and animals are woven into the designs, especially the 
beloved thunder bird of the Indian of the arid Southwest. 

The Indians of Alaska, particularly the Chilcat tribe, 
weave a very beautiful blanket from the wool of wild moun- 
tain sheep intertwined with fine strips of cedar bark, dyed 
with colors made from minerals and roots and fantastically 
decorated with designs aimed to portray the family history. 
The Alaskan Indians also make cedar bark rugs or mats, 
and their fur rugs or blankets are frequently works of 
art representing a great intrinsic value. 




8 THE MERCHANDISE OF 



Somewhat similar to the Navajo work is that of the 
Chimayo Indians of Mexico, who make blankets, rugs and 
zarapes ; but more interesting in design is the work of the 
Oaxaca Mexican Indians who often weave into their 
blankets forms of men and women which bear a striking 




Courtesy Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Eailway 
Two poles lashed across the opening tetween two small trees ^orm 
the rude loom upon which the Navajo squaw 
weaves her famous blankets 



resemblance to the drawings found in ancient Egyptian 
tombs. Can it be that these crude Indians bear a relation- 
ship to the peoples of ancient Africa? And can it be, 
that, after all, there was an Atlantis by way of which they 
emigrated thousands of years ago to what is now Eastern 
Mexico or Southwestern United States? 



THE AMERICAN INDIAN 



9 



Art Products Made from Hides and Skins 

The Indians of the Northwestern part of the United 
States, comprising the colder Rocky Mountain regions, 
formerly made most of their clothing from the skin of the 
buffalo, but this great animal, with his wonderful coat of 
fur, is now extinct in his wild state, and the wild deer and 
elk of the Rocky Mountains provide hides used by the 
Indians of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington for 
the manufacture of moccasins, shirts, dresses, gloves, and 
m.£.ny other articles. Modern high power rifles have dis- 
placed bows and arrows for killing big game, but the 




Another Xnvajo hlanlcet of a crude and striking design. Indian lore 
finds graphic expression in these products of an 
old and native industry 



squaws of the northland still prepare the buckskin much 
as they did hundreds of years ago, scraping the fur from 
the outer side of the skin with rude bone scrapers, and 
smoke-tanning the hides by shaping them like miniature 
tepees, inside of which they build a slow fire that gradu- 
ally cures the skin. Leather of wonderful fineness and 
flexibility is thus produced, and it will last for years with 
the hardest kind of usage. 

Beadwork in Many Colors 

Virtually all of the better work of the northern squaws 
is gayly decorated with beads of many colors, "store beads" 
having long ago taken the place of the shells and bone 



10 THE MERCHANDISE OF 



beads used by the primitive red man. Strange as it may 
seem, the World War played havoc with the bead M^ork of 
the Indians, because the supply of brilliant cut beads from 
Germany could no longer be obtained, and the beads pur- 
chaseable did not have the sheen and lustre of the imported 
article. 

There are many classes of beadwork to be obtained in the 
north Indian countries. The Indians of the cactus and 
rattlesnake country, such as the Crows and Sioux, make a 
wonderful hard sole moccasin capable of resisting cactus 
thorns and the bites of venemous reptiles, while those of the 
mountains, such as the Pend d'Oreille and the Salish, 
make a soft pliable moccasin, for they have no need of the 




Patience is exemplified to a high degree hy the Navajo rug weavers 
who work for many weeks in preparing the wool 
and making a rug of this kind 



protection so necessary for other tribes. Every well-to-do 
buck has a pair of gloves his squaw has made him, and 
some have beaded buckskin vests, shirts, and leggings. 
They all have strings of beads, wristlets, gauntlets, belts 
and necklaces. For their annual dances, they decorate 
themselves gayly in feathered war bonnets and carry 
trinkets with little bells attached, colored tom-toms, and 
medicine rattles to ward off evils and propitiate the good 
spirits. 

Many of these articles of Indian merchandise find their 
way to collectors, either when those interested in such 



THE AMERICAN INDIAN 



11 



things visit the reservations during the dance seasons, or 
when the Indians become anxious for spending money and 
part with their treasures to replenish their supply of food 
or tobacco. The Indians of the Rocky Mountains make very 
little of their finery for commercial purposes, while those 
of the Southwest make most of their blankets and rugs 
for sale to their white visitors. In many cities of the West 
are curio dealers who handle Indian goods extensively, buy- 
ing directly from the squaws, and selling to travelers and 
curio collectors. 

One of the most sought after relics of the Indian race 
from the viewpoint of the Indian curio collector, is the 
cradle board or papoose carrier, usually made of beauti- 



fully beaded buckskin, and used as the baby carriage of an 
Indian family for many years. Sentiment, along with hard 
work making a good cradle board, usually prompts the 
squaw to refuse all offers for her cradle board, but now and 
then one finds its way into the hands of some admirer. 

Pottery from the Desert Country 

Pottery is another bit of Indian merchandise that is both 
interesting and valuable, and its manufacture is confined 
chiefly to the races that have lived for centuries in the hot 
desert-like countries of the southwestern states, not so far 
from the ruins of the Cliff Dwellers — who were undoubtedly 
America's first potsherds. Many of their prehistoric pots, 





A Sioux pipe and a blanket 
woven 1)1/ the Oaxaca tribe of 
Mexico. The squatty figures in 
the design are similar to those 
of ancient Egyptian decorations 




12 THE MERCHANDISE OF 



jars and vases, have been found during recent explora- 
tions, and they are almost priceless specimens in the lead- 
ing museums of the United States. They are usually 
decorated with designs that might well have been rudely 
copied from the art of ancient Rome, Greece or Egypt, and 
cause one to ponder on the origin of this lost race and its 
work. The potters of present day American Indians are 
the Hopi, the Apache, the Pueblo and the Acoma, and while 
some of the work is crude, much of it is elegant and beauti- 
ful, and serves to grace the mantlepiece in many an artistic 
and aristocratic white man's home. 



The author's library, showing the use of Indian merchandise in 
home decoration. The rugs are Navajo and on 
the table is a Chimayo zarape 



THE AMERICAN INDIAN 13 




Another vietv of the author's den, shotving the 
decorative uses of Indian work. The Crow 
war homiet on the wall is made of eagle 
feathers. The handiwork of ten different 
tribes of Indians is displayed in this 07ie photo 

Baskets Woyen from Ferns, 
Grasses and Roots 

Closely akin to the pottery of the Southland Indian is 
the basketry of many scattered tribes. Basket work of 
one kind or another is to be found from Alaska to Central 
America, each tribe executing distinctively different and 
frequently very beautiful work. Much of the northern 
basket work is very delicately woven from mere shreds of 
ferns, fine grasses, and the roots of trees. Some of the 



14 THE MERCHANDISE OF 




THE AMERICAN INDIAN 



15 



inland tribes make their baskets chiefly of sweet grass^ 
with a wonderful natural odor, while the Pacific Coast 
Indians frequently weave from rushes and marsh grasses. 
The Klickitat tribe makes water tight cooking baskets 
and the Attn Indians make a wonderfully serviceable bas- 
ket by shredding rye grass for the body of the basket, 
into which they weave designs in gayly colored yarns. The 
Tillamook and Clatsop tribes make a loose weave handled 
basket that they call a clam basket, used originally in gath- 
ering clams, but which is now used by many American 
women as a shopping bag of unusual durability and attrac- 




Courtesy Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway 

This snapshot shows an Acoma squaw sitting in front of her 
plaster or adoie house, painting a geometrical design 
on a vase of her own modeling 



tiveness. The Makah baskets are made of birch bark and 
sea weed, while the Papago tribes of the wild canyons and 
deserts of southwestern United States make beautiful bas- 
ketry from the yucca and other desert plants. The Hopi 
and Oraibi make both baskets and trays, and many of the 
trays are of especial interest because they are used by the 
Indians primarily in their gambling games and religious 
ceremonial dances. 



16 THE MERCHANDISE OF 




THE AMERICAN INDIAN 



IT 



Bags Made from Buckskin, Grasses, Yarn 

Somewhat similar to basket weaving, is the bag making 
of the Rocky Mountain tribes. The Sioux, Cheyenne, Flat- 
head and Crowe tribes make beautiful bags of buckskin, 
decorated with bead work, to which are added sometimes 
little shells and now and then brass and silver trinkets. 
The Nez Perce, on the other hand, weave water proof seam- 
less bags from grasses and yarns, while the Blackfeet and 
many other tribes make a "parflesh" or carrier bag, out of 
heavy hide, decorated with red and black geometrical 
designs. 

Indian Games Supply Interesting 
Souvenirs 

The Indians are lovers of games — both games of chance 
and trials of skill and dexterity, and the collector of 
Indian curios usually finds this class of Indian merchandise 
very interesting as well as ethnologically instructive and 
valuable. With many of the tribes, dice games are com- 
mon — sticks, seeds, bones and leather disks marked with 
the proper spots, representing the dice. Hiding and guess- 
ing games, similar to the popular children's game "button, 
button, who's got the button," are played by almost all 
tribes, but instead of a button, the Indians usually use a 
I)one toy two or three inches long. The Indians also have 
g:ames similar to shuttlecock or shinny, and a few tribes 
have been known to play a sort of chess, the chessmen being 
carved by hand in a very crude way. Card games, too, are 
played in some tribes, and playing cards made of bark are 
among the most interesting efforts of the Indian to imitate 
Ms white brother. It is not an infrequent thing for ten 
or a dozen bucks to gamble for days and wager all their 
horses, cattle, and even their clothing on a throw of dice, 
or the guess in the hiding game. 

In the games of dexterity, such as hurling darts and 
javelins and shooting arrows, some of the Indians become 
ve^'y expert, and these articles are highly prized by curio 
collectors. 

Unlike many primitive peoples, the American Indian has 
made little or no effort to express his thoughts in any 
form of writing or hieroglyphics, although he is a great 
story teller, and legendary history has been handed down 
by word of mouth from generation to generation. A few 
tribes have portrayed events in their histories by poorly 
drawn pictures on rocks and caves, but these, of course, are 
not accessible to the curio collector. 



18 THE MERCHANDISE OF 



Totem Poles of Alaska 



The Indians of Alaska, however, produce what are known 
as totem poles, and on these they at least tell in a general 
way the story of the family or clan which owns the pole. 
A totem pole is a log, stripped of its bark, and carved, by 
hand, with grotesque likenesses of people, animals, fish 
and birds, decorated in brilliant water proof colors made 
from herbs and minerals. The carvings tell of the prowess 
of the head of the tribe and are symbolical of marriages, 
hunting trips, peace, war and other events. The poles vary 
in height from a few feet to seventy or eighty feet, and 
some of them are hundreds of years old. They are much 
sought after by students of Indian lore, but as the Indians 
hold them in a certain reverential awe, they rarely will part 
with an old family pole, and clandestine efforts on the part 
of over enthusiastic curio hunters in Alaska, have upon 
several occasions caused the curio seekers considerable 
trouble with the Indians. 

In the Indian villages of the far north, these poles stand 
before the chief tribal tepees, and they have caused students 
to wonder what connection there may or may not be be- 
tween the Indians of Alaska and the barbaric races of the 
South Sea Islands and the Urewera country of New Zea- 
land, for strange as it may seem, there is almost identical 
similarity between the totem poles of the Alaskan Indians 
and the carved "family tree-posts" found in a few of the 
wildest parts of the antipodes. At some far distant period, 
have some of the hardy sea folk of Oceanica drifted to the 
cold shores of Alaska, there to establish new homes and 
to re-establish a form of ancestor worship nowhere else 
known? So striking a coincidence seems hardly an accident 
and the origin of the Alaskan Indian is as much an anthro- 
pological mystery as the forebears of the other aboriginal 
American tribes. 

Civilization Doing away with Primitive 



The North American Indian, like most of the rest of man- 
kind in this century, is undergoing a great change. No 
longer is he free to go and come as he will, and no longer 
is he looked upon as a wild animal to be herded and driven 
from one part of the great west to another. His humanity 
is recognized, and the United States Department of Indian 
Affairs is endeavoring to train the red man to become a 
useful citizen. He is given an opportunity to receive an 
education, he is taught to farm and to raise cattle, and 



Artceafts 



RD 1 2.8 




THE AMERICAN INDIAN 



19 



his squaw is told that she is no longer the beast of burden 
of the Indian family. 

But fortunately, the story of the Indian as he was, has 
been preserved in the writings of Cooper, Longfellow, Le- 
land, Grinnell, James, Judson — the writers for the 
Smithsonian Institution, and a number of others who best 
understand real Indian lore. The Indian as a virile being- 
has been presented to posterity in the paintings of Reming- 
ton, Paxson, Russell and others. Books on the Indian form 
a real and vital part of the merchandise of the American 
Indian, but the paintings as a rule are far beyond the 
reach of the average buyer. There has, however, sprung 
up a class of commercial photographers throughout the 
western states, that has made it possible for the student of 
the Indian to buy at very reasonable prices many splendid 
photos of the red men in their dances, their games and 
their home life. 

Their chants and their songs have been recorded faith- 
fully by some of the leading phonograph and talking ma- 
chine manufacturers and the motion pictures have given 
thousands an opportunity to witness Indian dances on the 
screen, very nearly true to real life. 

Thus will be perpetuated the memory and activities of 
the people whose lives are changing very rapidly. Indian 
curios, mementos and souvenirs, with the books and the 
pictures, will thus make possible to the world in general, 
and to future generations of Americans, at least a slight 
understanding of the lives of these primitive, interesting 
people, even when real American Indian merchandise can 
no longer be obtained. 




An Alasl<au totem pole. The top finure represents 
a hirfie lird, )ie.rt /.s' tlie likeness of a fjreat cliiej- 
tdiii, tin II (I hedi- and a (/nil holding a frog 



20 



